10 Undervalued Actors Who Deserve To Get More Work

This week sees the release of Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly," a gripping little crime movie than threatens to be one of The Playlist's highlights of 2012. And among its many pleasures is the chance to see some character actor favorites like James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and newer up-and-comers like Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn given substantial roles to chew on. Best of all is a major role for the incomparably great Richard Jenkins.

This week sees the release of Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly," a gripping little crime movie than threatens to be one of The Playlist's highlights of 2012. And among its many pleasures is the chance to see some character actor favorites like James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, and newer up-and-comers like Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn given substantial roles to chew on. Best of all is a major role for the incomparably great Richard Jenkins.

Jenkins is one of those actors who's never anything less than wonderful, stealing the show in countless films, able to turn on a sixpence between comedy and drama, and elevating everything he's in. And yet, even though Jenkins won a much-deserved Oscar nomination a few years back for "The Visitor" and averages four or five movies a year, it still feels like he's chronically undervalued in Hollywood.

So to pay tribute to Jenkins and his performance in "Killing Them Softly," we've rounded up ten other actors who don't seem to quite get their due. Some are veterans, some are relative newcomers, and all have impressed in movies but maybe don't get to work as consistently, or in as high-profile roles as we'd like. Casting directors should note: the presence of any of the below is basically enough for us to buy a movie ticket, and we're pretty sure we're not alone on that. You can read our picks below, and while we head off to write a screenplay with roles for all of the below, you can suggest your own favorites who you'd like to see more of in our comments section.

Gary Cole
One of the crown princes of being "that guy" -- a familiar, but maybe not immediately recognizable character actor who regularly steals the show (see also Stephen Root, William Fichtner, and many, many others) -- Gary Cole has been in the game for three decades, usually in supporting parts. The Illinois-born actor was one of the early leading lights of Chicago's legendary Steppenwolf Company, which helped give the world Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Joan Allen among others. And after a few decades of reliable TV and movie parts, Cole finally poked into the mainstream in 1995, with two wildly different roles: Mike Brady in "The Brady Bunch Movie" and the Satanic Sherriff Buck in the short-lived, but wildly acclaimed Sam Raimi-produced TV series "American Gothic." But either stardom didn't come calling, or Cole shied away from it, with quieter TV and movie roles following again. Four years later, he again stole the show as Bill Lumbergh in "Office Space," and although it helped to buy him comic cred and parts in films like 'Dodgeball," "Talladega Nights" and "Pineapple Express," he still remains a well-kept secret from the general public. Over the last few years, Cole has stayed as busy as ever, appearing on pretty much every TV show going, from "The Good Wife" to "Bob's Burgers," but hasn't appeared in a movie since 2011's "Hop." We know that he's never going to be Tom Cruise, but there's almost nothing that Cole can't do, from broad comedy to sincere drama, and smart casting in the right major movie could see him soar.

Jennifer Connelly
It feels almost pointless to remind people that an actress who's been working for nearly thirty years and who has an Oscar is worth hiring, but we're not sure that Jennifer Connelly is really getting her due from the casting types these days. Connelly first appeared as a child actress in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In America," and followed it soon up with Dario Argento's "Phenomena" and Jim Henson's beloved fantasy "Labyrinth." She graduated to adulthood with "The Hot Spot" and "The Rocketeer," and, while things were quieter in the 1990s, it picked up towards the end of the decade with Alex Proyas' cult film "Dark City." And as the 21st century arrived, she suddenly exploded, with a bruising, gaunt, powerful performance in "Requiem For A Dream," and another with the strong but underseen "Waking the Dead." And her ascent to the A-list was completed the following year when she won Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for playing Alicia Nash in Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind." Connelly's had successes since, most notably in "Little Children" and "Blood Diamond," but more misses, including "Dark Water" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Her last few films have proven particularly dire with neither "Creation," "Virginia," "The Dilemma," "Salvation Boulevard" or 'Writers" proving especially popular with critics or audiences. Part of the issue may be that now she's in her 40s, and Connelly's hit that point where there are fewer and fewer plum roles for actresses of her age. But Connelly still has to be considered as one of the more pre-eminent actresses of her generation, and should really be getting better material, rather than just a string of wives and moms. Fortunately, some of her previous collaborators may be coming to the rescue. She's got a key role in Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" as the missus of Russell Crowe's title character, and is following it up with "A Beautiful Mind" writer Akiva Goldsman's "Winter's Tale," also co-starring Crowe and alongside Will Smith and Colin Farrell. Hopefully it means the start of a third act to her career.

Rosemarie DeWitt
Somewhat of a slow-burner, Rosemarie DeWitt (who is the granddaughter of boxer James Braddock, the subject of the film "Cinderella Man," in which she had a cameo) spent a good decade or so building up a formidable reputation in the theater, but really only started to make an impact on screens five or so years ago. After a brief year on the hostage negotiation series "Standoff" (which was cancelled quickly, but had the benefit of introducing DeWitt to co-star Ron Livingston, who she later married), DeWitt impressed with a recurring role as Don Draper's mistress on the first season of "Mad Men." Within a year, she was the title role in Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," and while co-star Anne Hathaway won most of the acclaim for the film, DeWitt was again terrific, and along with that year's "Afterschool," it put the actress properly on the map. She's gone from strength to strength in the last few years, with 2012 marking three very good turns from the actress in the shape of "Nobody Walks," "Promised Land" and in particular "Your Sister's Sister," which won her a Spirit Award nomination yesterday. Mainstream cinema hasn't quite caught on yet, with her most prominent studio role to date a somewhat thankless part as Ben Stiller's wife in flop comedy "The Watch." But with a reunion with Lynn Shelton in next year's "Touchy Feely" on the way, hopefully her profile will continue to grow. She's someone we can absolutely see ending up with an Oscar nomination in the next few years.

Frank Grillo
His name and face might not be immediately recognizable to the general public, but in a remarkably short space of time -- really the last year or so -- Frank Grillo has become the kind of actor who makes everything he's in about ten percent better. Grillo was a true working actor for the best part of twenty years, popping up most notably in "Minority Report" and "The Sweetest Thing," but hardly landing atop casting wishlists. But then last year came "Warrior," Gavin O'Connor's tremendously effective mixed martial arts drama, in which Grillo stood out as the trainer of Joel Edgerton's character. And he's quietly had a strong 2012, standing out in "The Grey" even among a cast with several contenders for this list (Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale), stealing scenes in "Lay the Favorite," impressing in the otherwise skippable "Disconnect" and, giving something of a masterclass in one scene of "End of Watch" (his drunken melancholy at the wedding is one of the best bits of acting we've seen all year). There's loads more on the way -- "Zero Dark Thirty," "Gangster Squad," the Richard Curtis-penned HBO movie "Mary & Martha," a lead role in action-thriller "Intersection," James Franco/Jason Statham team-up "Homefront" -- but he deserves to be working with more Bigelow-style A-list directors. Hopefully a high-profile villain role in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" will put him on the path to land those.

Sally Hawkins
Given that she gave one of the most widely acclaimed female performances of the last few years -- as the ever-sunny Poppy in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky," which won her a Golden Globe -- it's a little puzzling that Sally Hawkins hasn't exploded since. The actress, a RADA grad, has been winning acclaim on stage since the late 1990s, and became something of a Mike Leigh favorite in the movie world in the early '00s, cropping up in "All Or Nothing" and "Vera Drake" before "Happy-Go-Lucky." And even before the latter, she'd come to the attention of some big-name directors, with a smallish role in Matthew Vaughn's "Layer Cake" and a bigger one in Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream." But since, she's been reliably superb in tiny roles -- heartbreakingly compassionate as teacher Miss Lucy in "Never Let Me Go," steely in a one-scene wonder in "An Education," and terrifying in "Jane Eyre." And that she didn't get more attention for her phenomenal turn in Richard Ayoade's "Submarine" is kind of baffling to us. But things haven't been so good with her lead roles -- "Love Birds" was virtually unseen, and "Made In Dagenham" never quite managed to turn into the "Full Monty"-style mainstream hit it initially promised to be. Perhaps things would have been different if she hadn't missed out, surprisingly, on an Oscar nod for "Happy-Go-Lucky." But Hawkins isn't threatening to be out of work any time soon. She's in Mike Newell's "Great Expectations" at the moment and has "Junebug" director Phil Morrison's new film, alongside Paul Rudd, and a reunion with Woody Allen coming up in 2013. But we hope directors and casting directors take the time to see Hawkins opposite Rafe Spall in stage play "Constellations" in London at the moment where she's giving a phenomenal performance.